The 258-square-kilometre (100 sq mi) municipality is the 281st largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Hå is the 67th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 19,649. The municipality's population density is 79.3 inhabitants per square kilometre (205/sq mi) and its population has increased by 11.4% over the previous 10-year period.[4][5]
General information
The parish of Haa was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). In 1894, the municipality of Haa was dissolved and divided into two new municipalities: Nærbø (population: 1,806) and Varhaug (population: 1,801). During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, the municipality of Hå was recreated by merging of the neighboring municipalities of Nærbø (population: 3,926), Varhaug (population: 3,454), and Ogna (population: 1,470).[6] In local politics, the divisions between the three previous municipalities remain very visible.
Name
The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Hå farm (Old Norse: Háar or Háir) where the local church priest's parsonage was located. The river running past this farm is similarly named the Hååna, meaning the "Hå river". It is not known if the river is named after the farm or vice versa. The meaning of the original name is uncertain. It is possible that it comes from the plural dative case of the word há which means "aftergrass" (the grass that grows after the first crop has been cut down). Ti may also come from the word hár which means "rowlock" (possibly referring to the shape of the headland on which the farm is located).[7] On 21 December 1917, a royal resolution enacted the 1917 Norwegian language reforms. Prior to this change, the name was spelled Haa with the digraph "aa", and after this reform, the name was spelled Hå, using the letter å instead.[8][9]
Coat of arms
The coat of arms was granted on 5 July 1991. The official blazon is "Sable, a winch stand argent." (Norwegian: På svart grunn eit sølv vinsjestativ). This means the arms have a black field (background) and the charge is a winch stand. The winch stand has a tincture of argent which means it is commonly colored white, but if it is made out of metal, then silver is used. It is a special type of winch that has historically been used in this area to remove stones from the many farm fields. The arms were chosen to symbolize the hard living on the rocky soils of the municipality. A winch of this type (called a "steinbukk") is used locally for the removal of large stones from the soil for agricultural purposes. It's three legs also represent the three previous municipalities of Nærbø, Varhaug, and Ogna that were merged to creat Hå in 1964. The municipal flag has the same design as the coat of arms.[10][11][12]
The municipal council (Kommunestyre) of Hå is made up of 33 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The tables below show the current and historical composition of the council by political party.
Note: The municipality was dissolved in 1894 and it was recreated in 1964. Source: Statistics Norway[4][29] and Norwegian Historical Data Centre[30]
Geography
Hå municipality is located on the southwestern shore of Norway, along the North Sea. The municipality is located mostly in the very flat, coastal Jæren district. The southeastern part of the municipality begins to get a little hilly and rocky and it marks the border of the Dalane district (located to the south and east). Much of the land in Hå is used for agriculture because of its flat landscape. The river Hååna runs through the municipality. The shoreline of the municipality is marked by the Kvassheim Lighthouse and Obrestad Lighthouse.[31]
Hå has a temperate oceanic climate (Cfb), also known as marine west coast climate. The average date for the last overnight freeze (low below 0 °C (32.0 °F)) in spring is 16 April[33] and average date for first freeze in autumn is 10 November[34] giving a frost-free season of 207 days (1981-2010 average).